Friday, November 25, 2011

Bippity Boppity Boo!

And Happy Thanksgiving to you!

It has been a long week. Sunday started out well enough - my demos went well, and a bunch of the staff went to hot pot after work. Then I got back to the apartment and found out I had to move by the end of the month. So Monday and Tuesday were apartment hunting days. Monday was also bowling after work, and I made my first Chinese dinner, my first self-cooked meal since I arrived actually. Fried noodles - a success if I do say so myself. Tuesday I also went swing dancing at the local university in the evening. A small group of people, but very fun.

Yum - Fried noodles

Yangcheng Museum

Wednesday was day trip day. My coworker Joanne and I went to Changzhou. It's about 40 minutes away, unless you're on the slow train, like us, and then it's about an hour and a half away. We decided we wanted to go to the ancient town of Yancheng. It turns out that that town is on the outskirts of Changzhou - about 2 hours and 4 buses away - but we met some nice local girls who helped us find our way. And they bought us lunch. When people are helpful, they are extra helpful. Yancheng was very nice. We didn't quite get to the ruins, but we saw the museum and some traditional looking buildings.

Miniature of Yancheng

Then we took a cab back to the center of town. There was a slight miscommunication - he took us to the dinosaur park instead of the temple we wanted to see. But we snapped a picture and then he kept driving. Our final stop was the Tianning Temple and pagoda. It's a 1300 year old temple - with some more modern parts. We had a nice view of the town and looked at some mini-Buddha statues. Then we went to dinner and got back on the train to return to Nanjing.

Tianning Temple

Tianning Pagoda

Thursday - Thanksgiving. I worked, signed my housing contract (I will post new apartment pictures next week), and went to dinner at the local hangout with all the foreign staff and Nat's parents who are visiting from England. It is very rare that all of us go out together, so it was really nice to spend the evening with everyone, even without Thanksgiving food and knowing that there is a duck carcass hanging in the laundry room. I don't know why. Plus, Christmas has started at work, so now I am listening to the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Special.